World: Israel's Fugitive Flotilla

NOT since the Bismarck has there been such a sea hunt. In the teeth of a
gale that whipped the azure Mediterranean into an ash-gray cauldron of
20-foot waves, five Israeli-manned gunboats scooted to Haifa last week
on a 3,000-mile dash from the northern French port of Cherbourg. At
various points, they were tracked by French reconnaissance planes, an
R.A.F. Canberra from Malta, Soviet tankers, the radar forests of the
U.S. Sixth Fleet, television cameramen and even Italian fishermen. From
a distance, the world watched with emotions ranging from amusement to
outrage. In...